Appalachian development agency announces $10 million for Eastern Kentucky projects
The Appalachian Regional Commission announced nearly $10 million in grants this week to support development efforts in Eastern Kentucky.
Several of the grants were geared toward expanding agriculture in the region.
Those included $1.5 million to the University of Pikeville to develop an agricultural research center that officials projected will help create 250 jobs.
The center will focus on developing seeds, environmental conservation practices and controlled-environment farming, which allows production year-round, according to a release from the commission.
Other grants related to agriculture were:
▪ $1.4 million to the Kentucky Horticulture Council in Lexington for a program to help farmers with controlled-environment agriculture.
The University of Kentucky, Community Farm Alliance and the Kentucky Center for Agriculture & Rural Development will take part in the project, which is projected to create 12 businesses and improve nearly 250 others.
▪ $1.2 million to the Big Sandy Area Development District to help develop a facility at an industrial park in Martin County to sort and package apples from Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and provide assistance to people involved in the business.
Growers in the region are converting nearly 1,000 acres of reclaimed surface mine land to orchards, according to the release.
▪ The Kentucky Community & Technical College System received a grant of $1.1 million for a training program for agricultural workers.
In a separate announcement, Community at the Core, started by Bernie Kosar, former quarterback of the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League, said it would support the development of the apple-growing sector in Appalachia through education and training programs.
The first program will be at the AppleAtcha AgriTech Orchards in Martin County, the non-profit said in a news release.
The organization said it will work with the Big Sandy ADD on the apple-sorting facility.
The other grants announced this week were $1.5 million to the Perry County Fiscal Court for a trail and campground project; $1.5 million to the TEK Center in Martin County for a job-training project; $1.5 million to Community Ventures Corporation in Lexington for a loan fund to help businesses in Appalachian areas of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia; $50,000 to the Mountain Association in Berea for a community-organizing project; $50,000 to the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) Foundation in Lexington assess the potential of a center to boost the equine industry in Eastern Kentucky; and a total of $95,260 to the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, in Hazard, for two tourism projects.
The money for Kentucky projects was part of almost $47 million the Appalachian Regional Commission announced for more than 50 projects in Appalachian states.
The funding is through what is called the POWER Initiative, which stands for Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization.
The program is aimed at improving the economies of places hurt by job losses in the coal industry and related industries, including power plants that shut down because of a switch away from using coal to generate electricity.
